Jun 02

2019-06-02 Message- Everybody Out, The Message of Grace and Gratitude

By Communications Team Sermons

Grace and Gratitude The human instinct to survive is our most powerful drive. From our earliest age, we learned to respond instantly to danger. Everyone understands, “Everybody Out!” We practice fire drills at school, regularly change batteries in our smoke detectors, monitor neighbors who need mobility assistance, and do all we can to keep our homes safe and smart. Our Deacons in cooperation with the Session are also learning how to make our campus safer and welcoming. Some of our leaders have attended local security seminars led by the Department of Homeland Security. We will hear more about these initiatives in the months to come.

But there’s a different, hope-filled occasion when we hear the words, Everybody Out! As the Easter season concludes this Sunday, June 2, our Bible reading from Acts 16 tells how the Apostle Paul in Jesus name called people out of whatever held them back. Jesus doesn’t want people to barely survive, but to thrive! To the woman’s dangerous spirit, Paul said, Everybody Out! To those merchants who took unfair advantage over their customers, Paul said, Everybody Out! To those bound in prison, Everybody Out! To those who were emotionally restrained, Paul said, Everybody Out! The Good News about Jesus provides a way out into a future of hope and possibilities. Jesus called that spiritually thriving life, the abundant life! And, its available to all.

If you’re looking for a safe place, a welcoming place, then you’ll want to come by Cold Spring Church on Sunday. Because once the gathered community of faith experiences worship, is equipped by the Spirit, nourished at the Lord’s Table, and then enjoyed the Hospitality Table, all of us will hear Jesus’ encouraging and words, Everybody Out! God sends us out, Everybody, every day, to show the grace and gratitude of God through Christ in all we do. See you Sunday!

May 26

Love0

2019-05-26 Message- Conversations At the Shore

By Communications Team Sermons

Thank you for being a neighbor! The fifteen minutes it takes to enjoy this message may forever change the way you look at our shore visitors! What makes a good neighbor? Are you one!? What kind of neighbor are you? Let’s consider the new neighbors we will welcome to our worship, our streets and neighborhoods, our beaches, this Summer!

Four Summer Conversations:

Have you always lived here in Cape May? Awesome. If so, you’re a Remainer. How did you decide to stay in this neighborhood? Did you stay because of work? Maybe a family fishing business? Landscaping? Farming? Have you briefly lived in any other places? What keeps you here?
Were you born somewhere else? Super. You’re a Relocator. Where did you move from? Did you move from an urban area? (Perhaps Philadelphia?) Or, did you move here from a Suburban, or Rural community? Why did you choose to move to this neighborhood?
Or, maybe, you were born here, but moved away, but moved back later in life. That makes you a Returner. How old were you when you left our neighborhood the first time? Where did you first move to and why? What caused you to move back to this neighborhood? Before coming back, where did you move from? Would you characterize where you moved from as Suburban? Rural? Urban?
Are you a seasonal visitor? Then you’re a Retreater, someone who is vacationing on a seasonal retreat for a day, weekend, week, or all Summer long. How did you choose Cape May as a place of retreat? Have you vacationed here before, or is this your first time? What are your lasting Cape May memories you take home to share?

Let’s create welcoming conversations at the shore this Summer. Engage people you meet with an open and inquisitive spirit. Have fun by discovering whether those you meet are a Remainer, Relocator, Returner, or Retreater. And this Sunday, find out something really amazing about Lydia, who most mistakenly regarded as the first European believer in Jesus. She wasn’t from Europe! With the Apostle Paul, we can become a strategic neighbor and improve our cultural humility as he did when he had Conversations At the Shore.

May 26

Love0

2016-05-26 Message for Kids- Being A True Friend

By Communications Team Sermons

Memorial Day reminds us of the women and men who loved this country so much, that they did whatever it took to keep us safe, but sadly for them and their families, gave their lives for our freedoms. One day, Jesus told the people who followed him how to be a good friend: (John 15:13-15 The Message (MSG))

“Put your life on the line for your friends. …I’ve named you friends…”

What does it take to be a best friend? Honesty. Acceptance. Caring. Trustful. Loyal. Right!

What do you look for in a friend? Same qualities. Correct. God is amazing in blessing us with friends. Whether we have one, or ten, God did not put us on the plant to be alone. We have parents, grandparents, great-grand parents. The list goes on and on.

Jesus is our friend. But even cooler, he calls us friends. That means we can be honest with Jesus. Know he accepts us. He cares for us. He can be trusted with anything. And everything! Jesus will never desert us. He is loyal. And remember, Jesus gave his life he loved us so much, so we could live an abundant life following him, and joy now, and in the life to come.

Let’s give God thanks for women and men who protect our freedoms, and for Jesus who gave himself to give us life everlasting, who calls us to be a friend to other’s too.

May 12

Love0

2019-05-12 Message- Rock For All, Get Up And Represent Jesus

By Communications Team Sermons

Our Easter celebration continues this week as we consider Jesus as the Rock for All… people, ages, situations, neighborhoods, and anyone, or anything else, that needs a solid foundation on which to build something of meaning, something that lasts. We live in an age that tends to slap a universal and derogatory label on an entire group with information generalized from random or isolated experiences. We call this stereotyping or profiling. You can probably think of many examples. Maybe you’ve been stereotyped. Go on Yahoo and do a search asking the open-ended question, “Why are Christians so . . ..” The search engine produced some startling responses: Why are Christians…

“so judgmental”

“so hateful”

“so fake”

“so afraid of Muslims”

“so mean”

“so intolerant”

“so annoying”

“so self-righteous”

“so unhappy”

Do see yourself and those around you embodying those attributes? Probably not! Is this how the world truly sees those who call themselves “Christian?” How do these opinions become generalized, that the some see us this way? Is the world becoming biased towards Christians? Maybe. But, in what ways have we done this to ourselves? It is true that Christians have done some very bad things. Its also true that millions of Christians face persecutions for their faith every day, with many losing their lives every year for following Jesus. This week, we Get Up and represent Jesus, each in our own unique ways. We will explore our own foundation on the Rock and how we can let Jesus shine through our lives every day. Let’s ensure that greater Cape May knows we stand on the Rock because where Jesus is present, life is at its best, for all. (Thanks to my colleague, Dr. Len Sweet, for the search term idea!)

Apr 28

Love0

2019-04-28 Message- Where Do You Put the Doubt (Innovation and Faith)

By Communications Team Sermons

Coffee had a nickname. The Devil’s drink! How did that happen?

About 900 AD, Ethiopian Cadi the goat herder, discovered his goats eating berries that made them go crazy from what we know to be caffein! He tried it and made a drink. Eventually, word of mouth taste tests promoted the drink to Yemen. 600 years passed and in 1511 it comes to Mecca 🕋. First is banned by the Muslim clerics because this unwanted innovation with unknown consequences and side effects kept drinkers congregating in coffee bars instead of the mosque! But eventually, the Chief Muslim cleric enjoyed it so much, he lifted the ban! A hundred years after that, coffee reaches the trade routes to Europe. By 1600, Europeans are loving coffee, but this drink innovation was hurting the pocketbooks of proprietors selling beer 🍺and wine 🍷. Foreign innovation from the competing Muslim Ottoman Empire brought on another ban.

Church leaders called it the Devil’s drink! Coffee houses threatened the beer houses.

One day, anti-coffee Bishops petitioned Pope Clement 8 to excommunicate anyone who drank the Devil’s Drink! But, when the Pope asked to taste it, he found it to be delicious!

Instead of banning coffee, the Pontiff blessed coffee and said it should be baptized as the new Christian drink!

We fear new things and we doubt that something we believe to be “new” can be true. There is an anxiety over loss. When we doubt, we are protecting ourselves from loss.

With everything new, we risk the future we had been planning.

While we celebrate Easter every year, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead means we can enjoy a resurrection-way of life every day. At Sunset Beach’s sunrise service, the message offered resources on what we do with fear. Fear is understandable. Even expected to be experienced from time to time. But what about Doubt? This week, bring your doubts, your struggles of faith as we look in on many women and men disciples who expressed their doubt. Jesus appeared in their midst! Where did Thomas put his doubt? Find out where to put your doubt this Sunday as we gather for the Second Sunday of Easter and hear a message from John 20:19-31. (Hint: Doubt is not lessoned by more facts, but with personal experience with the truth. Jesus is alive! Meet him and see!)

Apr 28

Love0

2019-04-28 Message for Kids-

By Communications Team Sermons

Do you have a nickname? Sure. Many of us do. Some are very complimentary. Others, not so much. But if a nickname may fit us initially, we can always change our nickname to describe the best of us. For example, do you remember the disciple’s name who doubted Jesus was alive after dying on the cross for us? Yes. Doubting Thomas. Actually, Doubting was not his first name! It was his nickname given by others describing his lack of faith. We doubt when we don’t fully believe, when we don’t yet understand something entirely. Like when our parents tell us not to eat too much sugar, Or to go to bed early. We say to ourselves, “That can’t be true! Its just too crazy!” So we can give nicknames to our parents. They are “out of it”, or “Mean” or “Don’t understand me.” But we figure out most of the time these nicknames, labels, don’t need to stick because people can grow and change. We grow. Our parents grow.

Doubting Thomas grew, too. He came to understand that Jesus was truly alive! Its unfortunate that through the centuries we have kept Thomas in the Doubting box. Instead, let’s start a new tradition. Thomas’s nickname is Believing Thomas. And that’s a great nickname for us, too.

Apr 21

Love0

2019-04-21 Easter Message- Ground Zero

By Communications Team Music, Sermons

Easter is a wonderful time to celebrate the most astonishing, earth-shaking news that could ever be heard! But, over the centuries, even Easter’s events can seem pretty tame, ordinary. We know the story. But we can re-experience the power of “He is risen!” Easter…Ground Zero! Feel the tremors of resurrection power. See new life emerge from the unlikeliest places. From the Tree of Life’s promise in the Garden, to the eternal life revealed when Jesus hung on a wooden cross, a different Tree of Life, hope is ours! Let God turn ordinary into the extraordinary as we enjoy special music, an energizing message, and a welcoming, joyful experience. Shake up your life listening, then applying this message to your life!

Apr 21

Love0

2019-04-21 Easter Message for Kids-

By Communications Team Sermons

Easter is all about… right! Easter bunnies! No? Oh, sure. Easter is about chocolate and other candy! No? Oh, what is Easter about, then? Very good. Easter is all about Jesus. From the wood cross where he died so that you and all can live forever, Jesus was buried in a grave. But when they returned a few days later, the grave was empty! Where did he go? Jesus is risen, he is alive, though he died, he is alive now, for ever! Jesus is near by. With you every day. That’s what Easter is about.